Arlene Bowsher's deathbed wish that the Capuchin friars receive about $68,000 from her estate has been honored — more than six years and countless court hearings after the south side woman died, according to court records and interviews.

"The Caps have been paid in full," said Robert Bichler, 79, a Racine lawyer who made collecting the funds for the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph a mission. "I'm glad it's over — they've been paid and the job is done."

The controversy over where funds from Bowsher's surprisingly large estate went is not over, as both the Milwaukee County district attorney and the state Office of Lawyer Regulation are looking into the matter.

Brookfield lawyer Mitchell Barrock was paid nearly $260,000 from the estate while he was representing the estate's executor. The executor, Rick Guerard, who died virtually penniless last year, had collected more than $260,000 from the estate.

Barrock has said all of his fees were deserved and that Guerard wrote the checks and handled the accounting for the Bowsher estate.

An eccentric widow, Bowsher died in April 2007 at age 91, leaving behind an estate valued at about $900,000 — a sum that surprised even close friends who were seldom allowed into her modest and very cluttered home near Mitchell International Airport.

Less than three months before her death, Bowsher rewrote her will making Guerard her sole beneficiary. Guerard, a disabled ironworker, met Bowsher in 2001 and became a close friend.

After Bowsher died, Guerard disclosed that Bowsher told him he should actually receive only about half of her estate. Bowsher told Guerard proceeds from the sale of her home should go to about a dozen charitable groups and individuals, Guerard said in court. The $103,000 from the home sale has been distributed to those beneficiaries, records show.

Guerard said Bowsher also instructed him to share the remaining estate — after paying funeral costs and other bills — with five other beneficiaries, including the Capuchins. That meant the five were to receive about $68,000 each and Guerard was to collect the rest, according to records and Robert Rondini, the attorney named executor after Guerard died.

The Journal Sentinel in April profiled the intense probate court fight over the distribution of the funds.

When Rondini became executor, he discovered that four chosen recipients of Bowsher's largess — two friends, a retired nun and a Milwaukee food pantry — received only about $40,000 each and the Capuchins had received nothing, according to court records and Rondini. A $40,000 payment had been offered to the Capuchins, but they turned it down, demanding full payment.

"Attorney Bichler has been very persistent that his client is entitled to approximately $66,000," Rondini wrote to Barrock last year. "He will not go away."

Rondini contacted the other beneficiaries who may be owed funds but said none of them sought to pursue their claims.

Gina Styer, spokeswoman for Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin — which received about $40,000 — said the food pantry didn't press the matter because it feared a costly court fight and the "outcome was uncertain."

Bichler said he never thought of dropping the effort to collect on behalf of the Capuchins.

"You have to do what you agree to do," Bichler said, explaining why he stayed on the case. "This is what I agreed to do."

The payment to the Capuchins came from the Gimbel law firm's trust account, according to a receipt filed in court that did not disclose the payment amount. The receipt said the payment from the trust account — a fund that holds client money — represented a "full distribution" to the Capuchins. Bichler confirmed it was for about $68,000, plus interest.

About Cary Spivak

Cary Spivak does investigative business projects and covers the casino industry. He has won numerous state and national awards.